LAUSD plays politics again, Public School Choice recommendation of Cortines ignored.

"Insiders Versus Charters at LAUSD-
Strings were pulled, and Ramon Cortines was stopped by his own Board of Education," By Beth Barrett, Thursday, Mar 11 2010. L.A. WEEKLY
http://www.laweekly.com/2010-03-11/news/insiders-versus-charters-at-lausd/2

This is a good article to show the politics that are involved to replace the real concern for the children's educational opportunities in the recent LAUSD process to select operators for 30 schools, 12 new and 18 lowest performers. This happens to include Lincoln High among them. The big issue here is that Superintendent Ramon Cortines made recommendations following the voting done at each of the school locations from several factions including the parents. This was the Public School Choice voting, a purely advisory operation, but one that was to be seriously considered by Supt. Cortines.

Well, there were some preliminary reports released after the voting and the Superintendent made recommendations for which schools should be operated by which group. The groups making the proposals were groups led by the principal, as in Lincoln's case, teacher-led proponents, also done at Lincoln, and other groups including the Mayor's Partnership and some charter schools. Lincoln had only the two competing interests that I commented on in an earlier posting after the elections. I thought that since both groups were from esentially the same roots, the LAUSD, I think that there is a strong influence there that will really not be much of any real change.

Other schools, like the Esteban Torres Learning Center, had lots more applicants so there was quite a lot of potential for change. What resulted in the outcome that was finally decided by the LAUSD Board, led by Board President, Monica Garcia, to ignore the recommendations of Cortines and to exclude charter school applicants in almost every case.

There had been concerns before that the charters had cherry picked students and so they could expect better results when compared to the LAUSD. In this situation, requirements for accepting under policies of inclusion were to be followed. That would mean that students would not be screened out as often done before, so more of a cross section would then compose the student body and the educational needs of underserved students would be addressed. That was not to be seen in the case, as mentioned in the L.A. Times editiorial referenced below. I don't regularly agree with the editorials in the Times, but I think that this was one very correctly stated.

"Editorial-
A lesson for charter school operators - After lobbying for a plan to let outside groups run some L.A. Unified schools, the charter operators were almost shut out. Now what do they do? "
March 02, 2010
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/02/opinion/la-ed-charter3-2010mar03

One main point of the L.A. WEEKLY story was that Board member, Yolie Flores, the one who proposed the idea of voting for the operators, was in the lead here as a reformer to try to make a major change happen with the district. I really did not like the way Yolie Flores handled the Eagle Rock High dispute with the football coach, the principal and others in the faculty and administration a few years back. Nothing was settled there until Supt. Cortines personally became involved and settled the matter, although less than satisfactorily, in my view. That issue with the "consultant" employment with Gloria Romero was not a good sign, either, as far as I was concerned.

Well, now Flores seems to be doing her job and thinking about the education of the students. The others still appear to be bound by overriding concerns for political affiliations. Remember that Monica Garcia was working under current city council member Jose Huizar when he was president of the Board. Both he and Garcia had a lot owed to Mayor Villaraigosa as he really got them elected to their respective posts. In the last election, the Board majority is now weighted in favor of Villaraigosa, and the deference to the Mayor's Partnerships applications shows.

You can read the story to see how you have special interests- and that includes unions- exert influence to sway the outcomes of events. It is not quite illegal, but you see that somethings get seriously affected by the entry of such forces. When you see the name of Maria Elena Durazo mentioned, you know that there is some intense interest by the union here. She is probably the single most influential leader in labor since the death of her husband Miguel Contreras several years ago. He preceeded her in the union leadership, and you can see that influence in the area was enough that he had a learning center named after him.

Well, this story does a good job of showing reasons why things happen the way that they do, and that's not what the general public is widely aware of. There is a comment section after the story that is filled with comments longer than the story where the author, a 2007 magnet school retiree just can't criticize enough. Briefly, I don't think his criticism is well-placed as much of the target really isn't part of the focus of the story. I won't get into that much more than to say that most of what's stated can be distinguished and refuted although there is some validity to many of the observations made, but they don't really go to this story but to education on a broader level, and specific application to the LAUSD. (You can read that, too, and there's a lot, and form your own opinions. )

It was good to see that Flores appeared to be on the right track as far as what a Board member should be doing. I hope that she continues in that path and that this experience deters her from doing what is right. Garcia, on the other hand, is too entangled in politics, as she should be since she has no demonstrated performance of any real benefit to students, so far, and she needs political friends to keep getting her elected.

May Day is over, May 15 UTLA Teacher Strike Coming

The May Day protests did not make much news, the freeway traffic was not any lighter and the LAPD has not new problems from crowd control handling. Now what we have, according to the news is that the UTLA, the teachers union, is calling for a one-day strike on May 15, 2009. The L.A. Times reported this planned action that is supposed to influence the LAUSD Board of Education in acting on the budget without cutting any teachers. "L.A. teachers union plans 1-day strike; The work stoppage could fall on a day for AP testing." By Howard Blume May 2, 2009 http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd2-2009may02,0,5015121.story

The teachers have voted their approval of the action and it looks like you can look for that to happen. May 15th is a Friday and the story points out that the month of May has lots of testing events happening. Lincoln High School's calendar http://www.lincolnhs.org/apps/events/view_calendar.jsp?y=2009&m=4&id=0&rn=591120 shows some of this on their website, and the strike date, 5-15-09, has a few events that could be disrupted if the teachers are missing. One event, the Jr. ROTC awards is listed on the Calendar at 1:00 p.m. and at 8:00 p.m. The first blocked out time period is probably for students to be recognized by the student body, and the evening hour is for parents and the public. That might be affected since an absence of teachers supervising supportive functions for the evening event ceremony could keep it from going on as scheduled. I think the daytime event would be a casualty for certain.

I think that the move is something that is going to lose public support and create some hostilitiy from the public. The Union and the teachers' position to save jobs in something that really is a part of the overall fallout from the economic conditions coupled with the usual ineptitude LAUSD demonstrates in handling money. I think the Board is trying to keep a safety margin my not applying all the stimulus funding at one time. That would save some jobs but the problem does not end there. The budget problems are expected to continue to the next year as well, and so the Board wants to have some resources to address the situation, at least in part.

If the strike goes on, the disruption to the students day would be very likely, even if there are other teachers who don't leave. Not all teachers are members of the UTLA, but the equivalent of "DUES" payments are taken out of the paycheck's of all the teachers anyway under some arrangement, so being a member at least lets you a vote.

Every day that's disrupted simply makes a difficult situation, providing a good level of education, that much more difficult. That goes for the students leaving campus to protest anything as well as the teachers not teaching. By the teachers actions of adding to this disruptive condition, I think it's a big negative to the role they play. What you have here is the "job preservation" role superseding the "provide an education to the students" role. Most of the newer teachers voted for the stike I would expect since they are going to be the group from which layoffs will come.

The union asks for parent suppport but the support of parents is more emotionally based that logically based overall. The story reports a parent saying, "I'm there to do whatever it takes to have my daughter get a good education." But supporting this option to arrive at a short term preservation of jobs might not be the best thing in the long run. There's still a lot to examine, but parents involvement is pretty easy to enlist if you address their emotional side and show how their child is served by it. It doesn't have to be an accurate picture, but that will get parents into this. For that reason, it's hard to use general parent assessments of the situation to be the best barometers of worthiness of the move.

We'll see if the teachers union does not hit a bad chord with the public by this move. You have to wonder if they have gone too far at this time when so many others are being laid off and my say, "Why should teachers be immune from this?"

There's also talk of an initiative to add more sales tax for education. Another bad move, in my opinion, but that's not a certain decision so far. As it is, the sales tax is too high. I don't think that all the people who voted for the sales tax really understood what the respective ballot measures really meant. Another reason for having an informed electorate and not rely on the best t.v. ads for the truth. Well, the authorization vote is done and we will see if they strike, which I say is another way to shoot yourself in the foot on this issue, and should be avoided.

Reminder of LHS Band and Choir Free Concert tonight

If you have an opportunity, please try to squeeze in some time to get to Lincoln for tonight's concert program by the Band and Choir programs. It begins at 6:30 p.m. and I don't know the situation on refreshments available there, but you won't be able to partake in alcohol or tobacco on school grounds. You could make sure that you eat something before coming on over tonight. If you think you might want to leave early, try sitting near an exit so you can slip out comfortably without too much notice, taking that tip from the playbook of Mayor Tony, who issued that direction to his aides (and there's 93 on his staff) to set up his appearances that way.

I don't expect you to need that exit option, and live performances, even where there's those unexpected problems, still are much more entertaining experiences for an audience than any recorded "perfect" performance we would all like to make if we played.

Since the last year's opening of the auditiorium as the Ethel Percy Andrus Theater, there have been several performances presented there. Still seeming to me to not be fully set up was the lighting, with the performers and speakers often entering the "dark" zone where there normally would be in one or more spotlights. It makes for some tough existing-light photography when that happens. I see from schedules that there has been lots of time on rehearsals from all areas to make this week's concerts happen, and look forward to more changes.

I haven't seen the actual program listings, being outside of the operations, but if learning from experience helps, there might be a little more introduction of each performance before the curtains open on each segment. That was a bit of a missing element in last year's musical performance. I would like to have been clued in to what was coming up, maybe a little description of the song or performers or even a quick culture moment, just to get the most from what's presented, maybe even to know what to look or listen for, too.

It's a high school situation and it's all about learning situations, so perfection here is not expected, perfection being a subjective matter to some extent anyway. And let us not forget, that a lot of the fun is in the learning by participation in what area you fit into.

Please take this opportunity to visit Lincoln tonight for these performances, to visit for the Thursday night concert, too.

Please, be aware. Watch street parking restrictions before 6 p.m. -and I don't know restrictions were changed to a later hour by the City Council's money-grubbing moves for issuing more tickets and more expensive meter rates- and that's simply the truth of it. (Talk to CM Ed Reyes if you need the official city "explanations," and if you don't mind a big helping of baloney served up.)

Honoring Our Past


Following the re-dedication to honor Dr. Andrus, a bronze plaque was installed over the center aisle doorway in the front entrance lobby. In 1916, Dr. Andrus became the first female high school principal in California. She retired in 1944 after 28 years at Lincoln High School. She then continued working to help others, accomplishing what is considered by most people to be her most significant achievement, founding the AARP- the "American Association of Retired Persons."

Ethel Percy Andrus-(1884-1967)




One familiar view over the years at Lincoln is the Auditorium that was re-dedicated to honor Dr. Andrus in February 2008.







From the CA Focus, May 2008 issue, AARP's California publication:

"AARP Honors Dr. Andrus at Lincoln High Dedication Ceremony
As part of AARP's 50th anniversary celebration, more than 1,200 people attended a February 8 dedication ceremony of the Ethel Percy Andrus Center for the Performing Arts at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. Dr. Andrus served as the school’s principal for nearly 30 years before founding AARP. Joined by civic leaders, formers students, volunteers, and members, AARP toured the newly restored auditorium and enjoyed performances by the students of Lincoln High. Thanks to a $100,000 Ethel Percy Andrus Legacy Award, the refurbished theater will house a pre-professional training program for students interested in the performing arts."